Today in Washington D. C. - Dec 11, 2009

Yesterday the House passed along party lines the $447 billion omnibus spending measure 221 to 202, with 28 Democrats joining all 174 Republicans present in opposing it. Unfortunately, Glen Beck on his shows today said the Republicans supported this bill. They did NOT.  Again ALL House Republicans and 20 Democrats voted against the bill! GOP lawmakers said the measure was overinflated and rushed through with little scrutiny, while Democrats said it would fund key priorities. The Washington Post reports that Rep. Jerry Lewis (CA), the top Republican on the Appropriations panel said: ""There is no question that the era of big government has returned to Washington, D.C. I cannot and will not support this package of spending bills, because it simply spends too much money and makes a mockery of our legislative process."

Yesterday, the Senate voted 56-43 to agree to the motion to proceed to the omnibus appropriations bill and today, the Senate resumes consideration of the conference report for H.R. 3288, the fiscal year 2010 omnibus appropriations bill. The $450 billion omnibus includes 6 appropriations bills that have not been completed: Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, Commerce-Justice-Science, Financial Services, Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and State-Foreign Operations. Not included is the Defense appropriations bill, which Democrats are holding as a potential vehicle to attach a debt limit increase  Votes are possible today on waiving points of order against the omnibus bill. Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed cloture on the bill, and a cloture vote is expected Saturday.

When work on the omnibus is completed, the Senate will return to the Reid substitute amendment to H.R. 3590, the vehicle for Democrats’ health care reform bill. Because conference reports are privileged under Senate procedure, it will not take 60 votes to return to work on the health care bill.

Votes are possible today or over the weekend on a motion from Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) to send the health bill back to the Finance Committee to make sure it keeps the president’s pledge to not raise taxes on anyone making less that $250,000/year and on an amendment from Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) concerning re-importation of prescription drugs from other countries.

With many in the Senate spending time discussing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s questionable (and somewhat ethereal) new deal on a Senate health care bill, the Obama administration’s actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services has finally had time to review the bill Reid originally proposed last month and which the Senate is currently debating.

And what did CMS find? CMS writes, “[W]e estimate that total national health expenditures under this bill would increase by an estimated total of $234 billion (0.7 percent) during calendar years 2010-2019 . . . .” So contrary to Democrat claims that the bill saves money, and doesn’t raise costs, the truth is that costs would go up under Reid’s bill. In fact, CMS found that under current law total national health expenditures would be $35.253 trillion, but with the Reid bill, total national health expenditures would be $35.487 trillion, $234 billion more than doing nothing at all.

That’s an interesting dynamic, when considered in light of some of yesterday’s polling. A Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll found that 57% of Americans oppose the Democrats’ health care reform bill.  But the poll also found that “a 54% majority says they would rather Congress ‘do nothing on health care for now . . . .’” According to CMS, that path would apparently save $234 billion.

So CMS has now found that the Senate bill will increase health care costs and the House bill will increase health care costs. These bills violate one of President Obama’s fundamental promises about health care reform. And this is at a time when the national debt has exceeded $12 trillion dollars, with a record deficit for the last fiscal year and record deficits over just the last two months. This is not the right way to go about health care reform.

---

Tags: Government-Run Health Care, omnibus bill, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!